Banks and building societies must “ensure that customers affected by the current disruptions to online and mobile banking are compensated”, according to a leading consumer watchdog.
Which? is urging major financial institutions to take action after customers of HSBC, Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money were left unable to receive “pension payments” and wages due to app outages.
Jenny Ross, editor of Which? Money, outlined the “devastating” consequences these errors can have for customers.
She explained: ‘The impact of these types of technical glitches cannot be underestimated, especially as they come so close to the end of the month when millions of people are waiting for their pay or pension benefits.
“This could be devastating for people who, through no fault of their own, could miss important bills, be unable to pay for essential services or be at risk of overdrafting.
“[These] issues that can also have consequences, such as late payment or overdraft fees, or even affect your credit score.”
Do you have a money story you want to share? Get in touch by emailing money@gbnews.uk.
HSBC is one of the banks affected
FATHER
The money expert analyzed the compensation case following the technical problems experienced by many customers of Nationwide, HSBC and Virgin Money.
Ross added: “While the issue appears to have been resolved, banks must ensure that affected customers are quickly compensated for any losses resulting from today’s issues.
“Make sure you keep evidence of any affected payments in case you need to make a claim, and if you are likely to miss bill payments in the meantime, contact your mortgage lender or energy supplier to let them know you have been affected – they should waive any late payment charges.”
Today’s event follows similar banking app issues that occurred among Santander customers earlier this year.
Hundreds of customers were locked out of their accounts in April, but the situation was quickly resolved.
Experts warn that the outage of banking apps could lead to hacking theories becoming more popular.
Dan Reavill, head of technology at Travers Smith, said: “The fact that multiple banks have been affected will almost certainly lead to speculation that this is part of a coordinated and widespread attack.”
In its latest statement, Virgin Money said: “Update – we are still working through the backlog of payments and aim to complete this by the end of Saturday 29 June. If for any reason we are unable to process delayed payments, we will take will contact you directly. We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience we experienced today.
“If you have tried to send a payment from your Virgin Money account and received an error message, but money has been debited from your Virgin Money account, please do not attempt to pay again unless we notify you that the payment cannot be made are processed.
“If you have tried to send a payment from your Virgin Money account and received an error message, but you don’t see the payment reducing the balance on your account, please contact the person you are trying to pay before requesting the payment again if necessary.”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
According to Which? bank branches continue to close at an ‘alarming rate’.GETTY
At 2pm today, HSBC confirmed on its X account that online and mobile services had returned to normal and customers should be able to access their savings or current accounts again.
The bank added: “The payment issue affecting multiple banks has also been resolved. We are deeply sorry for those affected and we continue to monitor the systems closely.”
A Nationwide spokeswoman said the technical issue “has unfortunately delayed a small number of payments, which we expect to be processed and paid later today”.
However, the building association reiterated that the “vast majority of payments were processed normally” and that all other customers should be operating as expected.